Continuing a trend of delivering the most cost effective Macs in its history, Apple last week introduced its more aggressively-priced 2014 family of MacBook Pros and then sweetened the pot less than a week later by authorizing additional price cuts on the new models through its resellers, which are now translating to $100 - $350 net savings for users of the AI Price Guides.

Best Buy, in partnership with Apple, began knocking between $75-$125 off Apple's five standard 2014 MacBook Pro with Retina display configurations on Sunday -- just 6 days after their announcement.

Those discounts were then quickly picked up by other Apple Authorized Resellers listed in our Price Guides, such as Amazon, B&H Photo (which offers the added financial benefit of not collecting sales tax on orders shipped outside NY) and MacMall (which only collects on orders shipped to CA, CO, GA, IL, MN, NC, NY, TN, and WI). Since MacMall also offers AIPrice Guide users an additional 3% off its MacBook prices when applying promo/coupon code APPLEINSIDER01, these early price cuts amount to $100-$140 off 13-inch 2014 MacBook Pros and $150 - $200 off 15-inch models, before any tax-savings are factored in. These are by far the lowest prices -- and most aggressive cuts -- for new MacBook Pros that we've ever seen immediately following an introduction:

2014 MacBook Pros with no tax outside NY
For those readers who live in one of the states where MacMall collects sales tax, Apple Authorized Reseller B&H Photo offers comparable savings on these stock models and only collects sales tax on orders shipped to its home state of New York:
13-inch 2.6GHz, 8GB, 128GB for 1,197.00+$102 savings
13-inch 2.6GHz, 8GB, 256GB for $1,379.00+$120 savings
13-inch 2.8GHz, 8GB, 512GB for 1,658.00*$141 savings
15-inch 2.2GHz, 16GB, 256GB for $1,842.00$157 savings
15-inch 2.5GHz, 16GB, 512GB, 750M for $2,374.99*$124 savings
+ No sales tax on orders shipped outside NY.

The downward flexibility on new MacBook pricing is not surprising: Value has been the primary focus for Apple thus far throughout 2014. In April, the company boosted the processors on its MacBook Air lineup by just 100 megahertz, but cut $100 off the models to reach a new starting price of $899 for the 11.6-inch model. Since then, the company through its partners have allowed Air prices to slip another $100 on some configurations, with pricing now starting at just $799 for 11-inch models and $899 for 13-inch versions.

With their current pricing, the new MacBook Air models are the most affordable mass-market notebooks that Apple has ever sold.

And then in June, Apple debuted a new $1,099 iMac with low-end hardware that serves as the new entry-level model for the company's all-in-one desktop brand. That undercuts the previous base model by $200. Since then, this model too has grown increasingly more affordable, falling another $119 in the company's reseller channels to just $979.99.

Consumers have reacted favorably to Apple's new pricing strategy by thrusting open their wallets and helping boost Mac sales by 17.6 percent to an all-time record 4.4 million units in the June quarter.

With price cuts helping to drive sales last quarter, Apple is clearly hoping that lower prices and greater value on its 2014 MacBook Pro lineup will do more of the same.

The base iMac (with MBA internals) is $1099, and £899 in the UK. Conversion from 1099USD to GBP is £652. Add the sales tax/VAT and you get to £782. That's still a significant chunk more than they cost in the US. Yes business is expensive in the UK/Europe, but not that expensive. The other Macs are worse: the 15" MBP is $1999 which converts to £1186. Plus VAT=£1423. That's a £176 hike...

It's not like they have to ship them from the US to the UK since they're made in China anyway.

Makes me wonder if people are still holding off for Haswell. That said my MBP is giving me fits, even though I'm not ready for it I may have to get something new.

Note: Mac sales were a relative high point in Apple's last quarterly report, while iPad sales were the sore point, and they've not been discounted.

Also Apple targets profit margins more than almost any company of its size - and have long been willing to sacrifice some potential sales to maintain 'em. So once the cost of amortizing the production lines for current form factors had been absorbed, with no major re-tooling this year - once it became clear Intel had finally stumbled on delivering Broadwell - the latest "tick" of its biannual "tick-tock" strategy - and with plentiful RAM plus speed-bumped processors at no premium over last year's - they can cut the price and up the specs - making them more competitive - and simultaneously maintain their beloved margins.

Tim (Supply Chain) Cook at his best.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marvin

The Broadwell ones should be worth waiting for but these Haswell-refresh models are still good machines.

Apple seems to be making more of a push to hit lower price points. Maybe it's just an experiment to see what effect it has but can't complain about more affordable Macs.

I'm sure they're also factoring in what they're going to do next year, and I'd be surprised to see prices go back up or base RAM to drop.... ....good times for Mac buyers....

You mean a 2014 Macbook Pro or this particular deal? It's practically the same model as last year, hardly anything changed so if there's a deal on a 2013 model with a warranty, it's not much different. They are decent machines either way. They do have a generation old dedicated GPU, they could have moved to the 800M series but I suspect this is down to a future move to all integrated. Broadwell GPUs would be able to move ahead of the 750M but would struggle against the 850M. People who want a MBP now should buy this one as the next one won't be out until at least Summer 2015.